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Reviews
Unbreakable (2000)
A Masterpiece
This is a movie you can watch again and again. It is no wonder it has a cult following. If you are a comic book fan, even a little, this is a must see. Bruce Willis plays a superb persona, the classic role of the "reluctant hero". The pull of the normal and mundane demands against the lure of his newly perceived calling. Samuel L. Jackson gives a disturbingly good performance, leaving my jaw dropped the first time I seen it, and I still get tense during certain moments, yet one can not help feel pity for his character.
Two thumbs way up for M. Night Shyamalan, he proved once again he is a master of drama and suspense thrillers. Eduardo Serra shows his time was well spent at Louis Lumière College with his amazingly conducted cinematography. Solidifying the sadness of both lead roles, vivid yet dark scenes full of contrast and detail, reminiscent of the 1940's/70's Batman and The Spectre; vigilante in a dark world. The way he captured the comic book art on film, he deserved a reward in my opinion. Finally, the music by James Newton Howard, need I say more? The man is a genius and excels with every composition, in quality and speed, a rare talent indeed.
There is an overall feeling of melancholy, even in its brighter moments. The comic book references are numerous and to a fan of the sub-culture, it created even more depth to the story. This movie still leaves me pondering over the words Elijah (Mr. Glass) said "If there is someone like me in the world... and I'm at one end of the spectrum... couldn't there be someone else... the opposite of me at the other end?" -roughly 30:18 into the film.
Warriors of Virtue (1997)
Very Good
First of all, yes it seemed to be one of the knock off attempts, of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but The Warriors of Virtue was not the first to take from TMNT, anyone remember Street Sharks? Also I seen other reviews all over the web mention clichés...... what kids action movie does not have cliché lines? It comes with the territory. Yes it gives a lot of reference to Taoist (Daoist) philosophy, that could be confusing to a foreign ethnicity and youth. Yet, would you rather them give a detailed account of the Tao belief system or just reference? How much reference was made to Asian martial arts philosophy in TMNT?
The script was lacking, but the scenery, costumes, martial arts, cinematography and ideology of the film carried the story where the script failed. Not many children's movies with bad scripting can come close. It is obvious where the money went, when you actually look at the action scenes, costume and set design. Imagine how many "roo" costume repairs and adjustments were made because of the action scenes.
So lets take a closer look at the screenplay writers, shall we? Michael Vickerman and Hugh Kelley, both of them never wrote a screenplay before Warriors of Virtue and none of the films they are known for on IMDb have ratings that even go above 6.0 and most are below a 5.0, the lowest being Michael Vickerman's The Wicked with a 3.7/10. I think that may answer the issues with the script. So I give it a 9, I would give a ten had the script not been written by inexperienced and dull writers, who still have not improved much, with very little under their belt even today, 17 years later.